Monday, February 14 2005 15:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: The Bush administration is developing new strategies, based on techniques used against al Qaeda, to choke off the few remaining sources of income of North Korea, intelligence officials said.

The development of strategy began months before North Korea announced last week that it possessed nuclear weapons, they said.

However, some officials were quoted as saying by the 'New York Times' that it is unclear whether it would work.

The initial steps, the report said, are contained in a classified "tool kit" of techniques to pressure North Korea that has been refined in recent weeks by the National Security Council.

The new strategies would intensify and coordinate efforts to track and freeze financial transactions that officials say, enable the Government of Kim Jong Il to profit from counterfeiting, drug trafficking and the sale of missile and other weapons technology, according to the report.

Some officials, the Times said, describe the steps as building blocks for what could turn into a broader quarantine if American allies in Asia particularly China and South Korea can be convinced that Kim's declaration on nuclear weapons last week means he must finally be forced to choose between disarmament and even deeper isolation.

China and South Korea have been reluctant to impose penalties on the North.

To some degree, the paper says, the effort arises from Washington's lack of leverage over North Korea, and the absence of good military options, and it is far from clear that the administration's development of what one official calls "new instruments of pressure" will work.